Tag: M. Night Shyamalan
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MONDAY CENTS: Rob bless America
*All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars.Happy Independence Day everyone! I trust you ate some grilled meat, camped out on a beach for the day and saw some fireworks. I know I did. Apparently, others also went to see a movie called “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse,” since it topped the four day weekend with $82.5 million. Why is it a four day weekend? Couldn’t tell you. Movie people just like the fourth of July so much that any Monday that falls directly adjacent to it automatically becomes a Holiday too.
Breaking “Eclipse” down, it grossed $93 million on Wednesday and Thursday, $69 million for the traditional three day period, another $13.5 million on Monday, which all adds up to $175.3 million in six days. Catch all that? Technically, that $69 million is the weakest opening weekend figure of the series, but the film has already almost outgrossed the total of the first film, so let’s not get hung up on technicalities. Twihards came out in force and even though the film will drop precipitously from here, it will likely make its $68 million budget back just from t-shirts at Hot Topic so these grosses are almost irrelevant.
The only thing I’ll say is that “New Moon” had $186.9 million after six days and so that film’s total of $309.3 million is already out of reach, indicating that we have seen the peak of Edward and Bella’s popularity. Unless Kristen Stewart does a nude scene in “Breaking Dawn.” Or Taylor Lautner too, for that matter.
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FRIDAY FORECAST: Vampires and Shyamalan suck
*All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars.Are you guys seeing this Uruguay-Ghana game? Unbelievable finish. But it’s Independence Day weekend and we are supposed to be talking about all things American. Like sissy vampires and casting obviously foreign parts movies with good old white actors!
The weekend will go long with most people getting Monday off and it’s actually already begun with “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” opening on Wednesday and “The Last Airbender” debuting yesterday. Let’s start with the record breaker. The latest installment of Stephanie Meyer’s abstinence trilogy debuted on the largest number of screens ever, only nineteen months after the first film came out and shocked the industry. It earned $30 million in midnight screenings alone and chalked up a $68.5 million opening day.
That’s the fourth biggest single day gross in history and a little behind the all-time champ and previous “Twilight” entry, “New Moon” and its $76.0 million. Taking away the midnight rush, we’re looking at a Wednesday gross of $38.5 million for “Eclipse” and then a Thursday of $24.2 million. Definitely starting a slow slide, but not disastrous. Almost $100 million in the bank already and we have a long weekend ahead of us where “Eclipse” could feasibly earn another $100 million.
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8/26 Web Round-up
• The “Inglourious Basterds” one-sheet that could have been. [Poster Wire]• On the occasion of Tim Burton’s 51st birthday (yesterday), an appreciation. [Hero Complex]
• On Marvin Hamlisch’s “hilariously schmaltzy” score for “The Informant!” [The Playlist]
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Ang Lee takes on ‘Pi’
Few film projects in recent years have come with as formidable a chain of prospective directors attached than Fox 2000’s adaptation of Yann Martel’s bestselling 2002 Booker Prize winner “Life of Pi.”First M. Night Shyamalan was on board — which, admittedly, might have been a more appealing prospect five years ago. The next name attached was a considerable step up: “Amelie” helmer Jean-Pierre Jeunet would have been a pretty natural fit for Martel’s brand of surreal whimsy. I seem to recall Alfonso Cuaron being mentioned in connection with the project at one point too. Like I said, an impressive roster.
In the end, however, it looks like Ang Lee will ultimately accept the challenge, and I do mean ‘challenge.’ For those of you unfamiliar with the novel, it’s an allegorical fantasy about a shipwrecked Indian boy who survives by sharing a raft with a Bengal tiger, among other wild animals. It’s a tricky film premise to say the least, but Lee has proved time and again that he knows his way around delicate, potentially uncinematic literary source material. I think his visual grace and lightness of touch is just what is required here. Smart choice.
I do love how busy Lee is keeping himself, compared to many other auteurs of his calibre. “Lust, Caution” is a fresh, searing memory still, and it was only a few months ago that we heard he was beginning work on “Taking Woodstock,” an ensemble piece centred around the eponymous music festival. With that film already wrapped and due for release in August (perhaps a title set for discussion in our upcoming 2009 Oscar preview), Lee is ready to move on, with yet another wholly different proposition for his filmography. Good on him.
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‘Love Guru’ not so loved
I must admit I feel pretty proud of myself: the Razzie nominations have been revealed, and I have not seen a single one of their Worst Picture nominees. Not one.Not Paris Hilton vehicle “The Hottie and the Nottie” — uh, did anyone? Not the latest nail in Shyamalan’s career coffin, “The Happening,” though I admit I came close. Not “In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale,” which I must confess I haven’t heard of here in the UK. And certainly not Mike Myers’ “The Love Guru,” which leads the field with 7 nods. (The film’s “American Idol” promo spots were traumatic enough.)
I find myself a little bored with the Razzies lately… it’s not much fun to pick on films that, for the most part, nobody saw. Also, singling out films like “The Hottie and the Nottie” seems like a futile exercise when they never had any intention of being good in the first place. Far more rewarding, I think, is when they celebrate (so to speak) high-profile, high-stakes projects that failed miserably. “Striptease,” for example. “Catwoman.” “The Postman.”
But does anyone really care whether Jenny McCarthy is deemed marginally worse than Carmen Electra? If you do, feast your eyes on the nomination list below. (But hey, good call on Pierce Brosnan, guys.)
Worst Picture
“Disaster Movie” and “Meet the Spartans”
“The Happening”
“The Hottie & the Nottie”
“In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale”
“The Love Guru”